Uber driver convicted of failing to pick up blind Portsmouth woman with guide dog must pay £2,500

Mohammed Islam, 37, accepted a request for the journey by retired police staff officer Rachael Tudor before leaving the ‘vulnerable woman alone at night’ in Southsea after cancelling.

Islam’s discriminatory actions on July 31 landed him an appearance before Portsmouth magistrates where he was told to cough up £2,380 for breaching equality laws after a trial.

The court heard the defendant rejected the fare after claiming he suffered hayfever and had been ‘sneezing’ and ‘itching’ his eyes after accepting the fare.

But Islam’s bare-faced lies were exposed in court as CCTV footage in his car did not show him rub his eyes or sneeze once.

Desperate attempts to prove his innocence also involved him claiming he did not realise a guide dog would be with the customer.

Under equality laws, the defendant did not have to pick up a person with a dog but was obliged to collect someone with a guide dog unless he had an exemption certificate, which he didn’t.

Referring to a message sent to him by the customer, Islam said: ‘I saw the word “dog” but did not see the word “guide”.

‘I thought it was a normal dog. If I knew it was a guide dog I would have picked it up.’

But prosecutor Emily Lanham ridiculed the defence. ‘The word “guide” came before the word dog in the message. It’s pretty unlikely that out of the seven words in the message “guide” is the only word you didn’t see,’ she said.

Bizarrely, Islam also told magistrates he did not see the whole message due to how it appeared on his phone - contradicting his own claims.

Ms Lanham said: ‘You said you were itching your eyes and sneezing and now you’re saying you couldn’t see the whole message because of the way it displays on the screen. Is that because you’re lying?’

Islam, of Berkshire Close in Landport, denied failing to carry out a booking for disabled person accompanied by an assistance dog.

But magistrates rejected his defence and found him guilty.

Chair of the bench Bryan Stevens said: ‘There were no signs of you sneezing or having watery eyes.’

He added: ‘The public has an expectation that you do not discriminate against someone with disabilities.

‘You left a vulnerable person alone at night.’

Islam, who remains a taxi-driver in the city but was given the boot by Uber, was fined £800, told to pay costs of £1,500 and a surcharge of £80.